An Interesting Story Inside the HTTYD Universe
by Hourig
Summary: Witness the start of the thrilling story about Jack as he grows and prospers on the isle of Berk.  In this one watch the young Viking start to be introduced.
1. Chapter 1

An Interesting Story. Part 1.

Chapter 1.

Introduction of Jack.

Today was a wonderful summer day, somewhere in the middle of May. As such the weather wasn't completely freezing. Berk was a relatively small oval shaped island, both oval and windy and it is twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees of south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery, in the Barbaric Sea.

But right now we're focused on a very small part of Berk, a small protruding cliff edge to be precise. There we will find a young man, just entering his manhood, with short, blond, wavy hair, blue eyes and a small filled out face. He was well built for his age, with exception for his arms which were a bit larger than normal due to his work. He was wearing a fur vest, covering most of his body with an exception for his hands, a leather tunic beneath. Below he was wearing a pair of trousers. On a side note he had an eel skinned backpack, the hilt of a small pickaxe sticking out of the top and an ordinary processed leather belt, one filled with different kinds of work tools. There was a pair of sheers, a small hammer, some rather large tweezers and several others. Another thing he had was a small pouch on his left leg.

As the young man was carefully walking next to the edge, giving himself the shivers by looking down it from time to time, he started wondering why he had picked to pass through here exactly. Surely he could have passed through the Mountain Giant's pass? It was much safer and there he didn't risk falling off… But no! He had to conserve time! But he personally had an extra reason to pass through here. He had already gone through the pass many times and had exhausted, gathering everything he could from it. And this one? Not a single time…! Hopefully it would be fruitful.

And it was. Looking up from the edge he noticed a pink bush just a few meters away. Walking up to it he ducked to see that it was a Mint bush. Enjoying his new find, the young man started, slowly and with learned movements, to take its leaves, one by one. He knew its uses, especially when some of his fellow Vikings had stomach pains. Picking all the useful leaves he got up, packing them in his herb pouch on his left leg and left the plant where it was and continued onwards.

Scratching his face he wondered what he would do to get some food this night? He hadn't thought about it and as such he hadn't brought a bow with which to try and hunt something. And he was even less prepared when he thought about where he would sleep…

But this wasn't a time to think for that. Continuing onwards he was soon met by a lovely, to him at least, sight. He came up onto a small garden like portion in which he saw many plants. Looking at the mixture of different colors he couldn't help but smile. White there, red there, green here, yellow over there and so on. While most of them were completely useless to him, he did see one that he had been specially looking for. Quickly running to it, taking precautions to not step on the garden like patch, he quickly started cleaning up the bush he was at.

What he missed however was the strange and out of place smell of… chocolate? Turning around after he finished with the bush he was greeted by a rather surprising sight. Four huge flowers, each much larger than the rest, were sticking out of the ground. And surprisingly enough one was facing him.

Nearly falling back he almost smashed the bush behind him. Looking at the plant and smelling its chocolaty fragrance he immediately recognized it. A Snaptrapper _Dragon. _Having dealt with them before however, he knew exactly how to deal with it. Opening his canteen he poured what little water he had left into the mouth open and facing at him. And then he watched as the flower slowly closed to reveal the dragon's full head. Tasting the water he had just given it, the large plant slowly nodded and opened up again. Taking the nod as a signal to leave, the young man quickly scrambled up and continued past the dragon.

Taking a deep breath after he was far away enough, he slowly opened his canteen and checked if he had actually given it all to the dragon. He had. Sighing in frustration he hurried on, seeing the end of the road that was next to the edge. But as he was about to leave the area he saw something else that caught his attention. There was a small rock, one protruding from the cliff face above. And it had a metallic glimmer. Pulling out the small pickaxe from his backpack he swung several times at it, smashing the rock into many tiny pieces. Shuffling through the rubble he took all the pieces that even slightly glittered and packed them in his backpack together with his pickaxe, knowing that they would be useful back at the forge.

Rushing out of the path he saw that a forest was standing as far as he could see in any side, with the exception of one, but the ocean was looking at him from there. Not sure how he would spend the night he decided to go a bit into the forest so that he would be shielded from the winds coming in from the ocean.

During the night he would use the hammer he had taken to knock down a few low hanging branches which he would then proceed to use to make a fireplace. He would then cook a rat he had caught, using his hammer again. And at the end of the night he would throw in as much firewood as he could into the fire to keep it going all night and use his backpack as a pillow.


	2. Chapter 2

An Interesting Story. Part 2.

Chapter 2.

Back to the village.

Giving off a loud yawn as he woke up the young man sat up and started stretching his arms. Looking around he saw that the campfire he had left to burn throughout the night had extinguished itself at some point during the night.

Feeling a bit cold he rubbed his hands together and quickly started the fire back up. Going a bit away from his camp to relieve himself, he returned to find a rather surprising sight. A small terrible terror had made its way next to his fire and had fallen asleep! At first he was about to just turn around and leave, but the young man remembered that he had left his backpack next to the fire. Cursing his luck he took a few slow and quiet steps towards the backpack… until he stepped on a branch and broke it under his weight.

The Terrible Terror immediately raised its head, looking at him and started examining him from its laying position. Its head was constantly twitching, almost spasmodically. However it did not take its eyes off of him.

Reaching up to show he was unarmed and not posing any sort of threat the young man took several more steps until he was well above his backpack. Again he slowly started reaching down towards it… that is until the small Terror jumped up and rushed over to his backpack, starting to speed around it. And through it, around him.

He was however not sure if it was the only around, having learned from the Book of Dragons that they generally stayed in packs. But he decided to risk it and reached down towards his own pack again. Grabbing onto one of the straps the small terrible terror started quietly hissing in anger as the Viking was taking away his prize. Ignoring the tiny dragon however the young man turned around and tried to hurry. Until he was stopped several steps later.

Having caught a glimpse of green scales he had looked up only to find the rest of the supposed pack that tiny terrible terror behind him was. They were at least a dozen! Thinking fast he remembered another thing that the old book said about these small Terrors. Slowly reaching into his backpack, careful to not make any more of the dragon's almost hateful glares turn into anything more, he pulled out several of the iron shards he had mined out of the cliff face yesterday.

Looking around to find the sun he positioned the iron shards on the ground so that they would reflect as much glare as possible. And thankfully it worked! Moments after the iron shards caught the shine of the sun all the Terrible Terrors moved their eyes away from him and on to the "shinies". Taking this chance he quickly started running away, hurrying as much as he can so he can get away from the small dragons range.

Soon he reached the cliff edge he had used to get to this part of the island. Looking up at the sky he noticed that those small dragons had taken up a large part of the morning. Not wasting any time he climbed down until he reached the small path with a solid cliff edge, one leading up and one leading down again. Having collected the iron and the herbs along the way the only thing that slowed him down was the Snaptrapper. But having refilled his canteen earlier he had much less trouble, using up only half of it this time. Nodding again in approval of his peace offering the four headed dragon let him past again.

And even then it took him all the time till the afternoon to get across the path in the cliffs. Climbing out of it he noticed the village of Berk standing proudly in the distance. Judging the space between here and his target he decided he would reach it just as afternoon was turning into dawn. Not wanting to be late he started walking again, trying to ignore the many dots moving above the village.

About halfway there however he was greeted by a rather… Curious problem. As he was walking on a old woodsman dirt path he felt as if something was watching them. Constantly looking over his shoulder to try and find his stalker the young Viking was getting more and more paranoid. Opening his mouth for the first time he asked.

"Who's there?" He nearly yelled as he turned around, still walking backwards and looking around. Thankfully having turned around he caught a glimpse of the creature. As he was looking towards one of the trees the space in front of it very quickly changed to pure red and then moments later into brown. But having caught it with his eyes he started following the shadow more closely, seeing as it was changing colors over and over again.

That is until the dragon realized it had been spotted. Abandoning its hiding, it rushed in front of him with a few wing flaps. Pushing him on to his bottom the young man cursed several times. Getting up he looked at the Changewing. It had rather large wings on its back, strange horns that looked like fins on their face and most distinctively, two antennas above each of its eyes. And this one was looking straight at him and standing in front of him.

Not sure how to react he "tried" to push the dragon away. However it was like trying to push down a stone wall. When he moved back to relax he was surprised when the dragon mimicked him exactly and pushed him back in return. Getting back up after this rather humiliating push, the young man pushed wondered what to do. Trying to do the easiest thing he just turned away from the dragon and continued walking towards Berk… the Changewing acting as if his shadow.

Getting a bit mad when the dragon continued following him, the Viking turned around to yell at it only to see that it was gone. Not sure what made it go away, he looked back down the road to see the first sign of civilization: one of several lumber mills. Thanking all the gods he knew he continued into the village.


	3. Chapter 3

An Interesting Story. Part 3.  
>Chapter 3.<br>Inside the village.

As the young Viking was making his way across the outer circle of the city, he was wondering whether his masters would still be at their respected workplaces when he came home. Soon the buildings he was passing by were turning from lumber mills and farms into ordinary houses dedicated to living. Soon the dirt road that connected said mills to the main village turned into stone roads.

The Vikings of Berk had deemed it necessary after many dragons had come to live with them, since many had gotten tired of falling over due to body sized claw marks in the dirt. Especially after rain. The stone had made sure that doesn't happen. Well… unless one of the boulder class dragons burrows through it. But even then there were some men that were willing to replace the damaged road as soon as possible.

As he was walking towards the middle of the village he started noticing the alliance between the men the dragons and its fruits. Just a few meters to the side of him he could see a burly Viking with an axe over his shoulder walking side by side with a Monstrous Nightmare, the two heading out on a patrol. A bit further down the road he could see a building being repaired by several humans and a dragon, after said dragon had "accidentally" knocked into it, creating a large hole.

But as he was taking in the sights he realized he had already reached the middle. Making his way to the northern part of town from there he continued on towards the smithy. When he saw smoke coming out of a chimney he guessed that Gobber, Hiccup or one of the other apprentices was working there. After the dragons came to live with them, they had deemed it necessary that more Viking should dedicate to other professions except warrior. As such many of the preexisting masters got an influx of apprentices.

Walking up to the opened up work spot he saw Gobber working in the furnace. Coughing out loud to get his attention he waited for the old, large and personally in his opinion, a bit ugly, Viking to turn around. He was wearing his usual tunic, pants and the fur vest. On his left hand he was wearing a blacksmiths thong prosthesis. What surprised the boy enough was the fact that he Gobber was missing half of his right mustache. Motioning on his face where the mustache would be, he waited for him to react.

"This? Oh this is nothing. I just had a little trouble with the grinder!" Gobber exclaimed in answer, shivering a bit at the memory of how he got it stuck, ending with him having to cut it off. "Now, what did my most promising student bring me?" He asked after the shiver.

In reply the smaller Viking put down his backpack and opened it up. Moving the pickaxe out of the way he lifted it up under Gobbers face for him to see it filled with small and large shards of iron. "I could have brought more but a pack of Terrible Terrors sort of got in the way." He added to it. Watching as the large man used his thongs to lift it a larger shard he started examining it. In the meantime he answered. "No worry… Terrors are evil that way…" He suddenly bit down on the shard to make sure it's good and then continued. "That is definitely some good iron there Jack. It's a shame that you aren't devoting yourself fully to this. Why do you overwork yourself by being an apprentice with that damned gardener as well?"

But Jack was already walking away, having delivered the iron. He knew that later he would be called to work it anyway. Heading towards the village elders house which also doubled as the herbalists, the Viking started thinking about what Gobber asked. During his early years he had started working in the outskirts as the son of the farmer. And until a certain age he was a very good one. But after that the dragons had pillaged it he came to the village where he then became a relatively baker, providing for all the hungry throats. While working as one he also picked up brewing, making some good ale on the side. He then became a fighter when he reached the right age, getting quite good with the ordinary sword and shield. But now that the threat was over he was working at both at the smithy, crafting and repairing everyday items, and at the herbalists, making strange potions that would suit any ailment…

Jack was then suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he was almost landed upon by a landing gronkle. Stepping to the side just in time to avoid said squishing, he watched as Fishlegs jumped off from his dragon. Waving to him as a hello he quickly hurried back, his dragon in toe. Turning around he noticed Astrid walking towards the smith's house.

Choosing to not yell at the two he continued on to the village elder's house. Getting to it without any more problems, he looked at it in amazement. Being the only three floored building in the village, it easily towered over the rest. Walking to the side he went up a staircase leading up to the third floor, and his target. Knocking on the door he heard a single. "Come in." Opening the door he quickly ducked, avoiding the Terrible Terror that had thrown itself towards his head. "Nice try Ithig." Jack said as he closed the door behind him.

Turning around towards the plant filled room he gazed at all the different kinds, many of which he didn't even know by name. Trying to take a step forward he was startled by a sudden cough from below. Looking down he saw Gothi, the village elder, a frail old woman, barely reaching his waist. Stepping back he kneeled over, opening up his herb pouch in the process. Offering it to the elder, she took it from his hands and started examining them. Releasing him with a single glance he took the note and opened the door again, getting greeted by Ithig. This time however he had been too busy with Gothi and as punishment he received a Terror to the face. Knocking him over, the purple Terrible Terror quickly let go when it heard a. "Ithig!" Come from the old woman. Rushing over to her, he climbed up on the table she was at.

Getting back up and closing the door behind him, Jack cursed a bit at his slow reaction time. Cracking his neck, he headed towards the dining hall. He knew fully well that he would spend what little remained of the day either at Gobbers Smithy or at Gothies Herbalists. At least he would do it on a full stomach.


	4. Chapter 4

An Interesting Story. Part 4.  
>Chapter 4.<br>"Resting".

The Dining Hall was a large cave like building, one build into the side of a cliff, with massive wooden doors acting as its only entrance. The giant room was filled with long tables and several benches at each, several fire places in which to cook the food and many goblets tapestries all over the walls to hide the bare stone behind them. It had just gotten dark outside and as such many of the Vikings had retired to it to have dinner.

Jack was also one of said retired Vikings and had chosen to sit with the older men, having earned the right by reaching his age. He was listening to one of them describing how he and his Gronkle had started encountering rarer and rarer dragons all around the island, ones that they had barely seen just a few months ago. Dragons like the Scrill, the Scauldron, the Thunder Drum and such. He even described what seemed like a Whispering Death gobbling up a sheep while he was flying over head.

The mere description of how this black dragon sounded terrifying to Jack, who had come to get used to the seemingly friendly looking Terrible Terrors and Snaptrappers. Even the Changewings didn't look as terrifying as this dragon. Looking at his food he realized he had lost appetite after finding out about this dangerous kind of dragon and as such decided to ask.

"Can you by any chance tell me where you had seen that Whispering Death?" Jack said, causing all the older Vikings to look over their shoulders at him, as if just realizing he was there. The Vikings that had been talking until now looked at him first and said. "Around that old burial mount. The one that's completely empty. I think the dragons have made that place their home after it was abandoned and the bodies disappeared."

Thanking all the Vikings, Jack got up, picking up his dish of pig ribs. However when he was up he rethought about it and left the dish, taking just the few ribs. Waving the few Vikings that even noticed him leaving, he soon got to the door. Opening it up him was nearly immediately "assaulted" by several Terrible Terrors. Throwing the ribs as far away as possible he quickly ran for it, trying to avoid the rather impressive pile up of scales, claws and fangs that had happened over the meat.

Not sure what to do from now on he started considering his three options. He could either go to the Village Elders house to continue training in the art of working with the herbs he gathered. Or he could either go to Gobbers Smithy and help (And learn) about making and maintaining the various tools everyone might need in the village. Or maybe he could just simply escape on his duties and get to his own house and have the rest of the night off. It really was a tough decision for him…

But he was the work loving Jack after all. And as such he chose the one that would seem the hardest. Gobbers smithy. Heading towards the northern part of the village he tried to avoid any unnecessary attention from both dragons and Vikings alike. This however was easy seeing as if people weren't eating they were either at home getting ready for sleep. The dragons were even easier! After they had come to live with the Vikings, the smarter men had figured that the dragons probably like a roof over their heads just as much as humans. And as such they had built a sort of dog houses, just these ones were meant for dragons. And as such most houses in Berk now had a add on like that.

Reaching the smithy after about an hour, Jack tried to see if smoke was still coming out of the chimney, but was unable to due to the darkness. Seeing the light of the forge from the distance, Jack started wondering why he couldn't see anyone inside. Jumping over the counter he looked around, seeing no one inside and yet the forge lighted. Shrugging he thought "Well at least everything is prepared for me…"

Looking around he could see several things to work on. There were several hammers left on the worktable, each disassembled. There were several broken pieces of metal, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a sword shattered into several pieces. There were also many other things, but Jack decided he would do well to just finish the first two and home for the night.

Deciding to work on the hammers first, he pulled out a long metal stick and left it in the forge to heat up. In the meantime he went to the worktable and started examining the damage. Taking the first hammer in his hands, it immediately fell apart, the handle falling off. Knowing what to do, Jack took a smaller hammer and with several hits knocked out the broken piece of handle. He took a spare that was packed in a small cabinet beneath the table. Sticking it back in, he left the now repaired hammer to the side.

He then took the second one and started working on it. This one simply had a large dent where it was used to hit. Taking it to the grinder he just simply started grinding it away. While it would become a bit shorter, it would also serve a much longer while then it probably would right now. When he finished he left the hammer to the side, next to the other repaired one.

Taking the last broken hammer, he didn't find anything seemingly wrong with it at first. But when he lifted it up he immediately noticed something off. Swinging it a few times from side to side he noticed that it was much heavier then it was supposed to be. Not sure what might have caused this, he decided to leave it there. At least until Gobber showed up tomorrow to show him how or what exactly the problem was.

Finally turning his attention towards the broken sword he started wondering about how to go around fixing it. He would surely need an iron ingot to even think about repairing it… But then again he would probably need to reforge it entirely. Moving the few pieces to the worktable he threw most of them on it.

And he was about to throw the sword hilt there as well when he heard a creaking noise. Immediately turning around, the broken hilt in his hand he was surprised when he saw a scrawny looking boy. He was even more surprised when he recognized Hiccup in said boy!


	5. Chapter 5

An Interesting Story. Part 5.  
>Chapter 5. <p>

Looking at Hiccup, Jack let out a sign of relief and threw the hilt on to the work bench. Noticeably relieved himself, the Haddock lowered his hands after he saw Jack leave the broken weapon.

Leaning on to the table, he looked at the boy and said. "What in god's name are you doing here in this hour? Trying to give me a heart attack I bet…"

"I was sort of looking for some parts for my fake leg? It's been making this very strange creaking noise all weekend and it's been driving everyone crazy." Hiccup said as he presented the prosthetic leg. Taking a few steps to examine it, Jack marveled at the relatively good work Gobber had done. It was a piece of wood, with iron reinforcement, and to support Hiccup in being able to fly Toothless, it had a hook like appendage on it, which also allowed him to walk.

Looking at it he couldn't see a problem with it at first, but when Hiccup stood back on it he realized what it was. Before the boy could have any time to say anything, Jack said. "Get that leg on the table. The spring that allows you to shift weight is rusted." He then continued towards it, not looking back to see if Hiccup was following. He quickly pulled out the tools he would need, including the parts.

In the meantime, almost as if he was forced, Hiccup made his way to the table. While he didn't know Jack in person and as such didn't know if he was trust worthy, Gobber had applauded the young Vikings abilities in the forge, saying that if he actually tried he could probably become better then both he and Hiccup combined! But even like that he wasn't all that willing to check this statement first hand.

Sitting on the chair Jack offered him, Hiccup placed his prosthetic on to the table and watched. Jack quickly placed a forked chisel in what little place there was between the nail that held the iron foot part attached to the wooden prosthetic. He then hit the top of the chisel, hammering it down until the nail was about half way out. Jack then used a pulled out the weakened nail with his bare hands. Pulling the iron foot out of the wooden part, Jack also took the rusty spring out. Checking it on the light of the nearby forge, he determined that it was utterly useless and promptly threw it into the melting fire.

While Jack was preparing to repair the leg, Hiccup asked. "You sure you know what you're doing? Have you even done this before?

"Of course not. The parts I come from they would straight off kill you if you were missing a limb. How about you? Is this the first time someone is performing maintenance on your leg?" Jack asked a bit sarcastically.

"Well ha ha. Yes. It is my first time. Can't you tell how strange I'm finding this?" Hiccup asked, Jack just now looking up to find the uncomfortable face Hiccup was showing. Deciding to cut the chit chat, the young man quickly put the spring in its place, the metal foot, a nail in the slot he had pulled the last one out of and finally hammered it in. He then stood back to see if he had done his job well.

Hiccup rather wearily put his leg on to the ground and looked at Jack nervously. Gathering the courage needed to test it out, Hiccup took a deep breath and quickly got up, closing his eyes half expecting the prosthetic to fall apart. Not feeling gravity slowly push him towards the ground he opened his eyes to see that he was still standing. Taking a step forward, a step backwards and then one to both sides, Hiccup finally let go of the breath he had taken half a minute ago.

Extending his hand to Hiccup, Jack said. "Let's hope that continues to do the job for a long time and that the two of us won't have to meet on these terms again."

Taking his hand in return, Hiccup answered. "Hopefully…" He then turned around to leave, but looked back a bit worried and asked. "Just a small favor. If you see Toothless can you tell him I'm at home? I'm asking you since the two of us were playing a game, but I lost him somewhere around the smithy. That's the other reason I was here I didn't tell you about."

Nodding in agreement, Jack walked him off to the front door, where he then waved him off until the Viking lost sight of Hiccup. Deciding to look around the smithy for a bit, he walked in where he got a torch. He couldn't find anything interesting or worthy of note thing around it, until he entered the back garden. There he saw the fruits of labor that the other apprentices had done. Just over there he could see a rather deformed looking shield. Instead of being the usual circle this one was square shaped. Over there he could see a sword that was completely flat in one end and extremely sharp on the other. On the other side of the garden, on the shack door he even saw a rather massive breastplate, too big for any Viking to wear. Maybe it was for dragons? Maybe its young creator thought that dragons needed to be even harder to kill if they were in a fight…

Yawning due to lack of sleep since yesterday and the late hour, Jack into the forge. Wondering if he should fix that broken sword today, or leave it for tomorrow, Jack sat on the chair next to the working table. Examining the broken blade he couldn't help but feel a nagging voice in his head telling him to fix it. He was about get up when he felt his eyelids getting heavy, well, heavier than they were already…

…And just like that he woke up in a little bit later. Looking around he noticed that the forge had gone out, letting the open room get rather cold. Rubbing his exposed shoulders, Jack stood up and started running in place until he warmed up. Looking out the counter like window, he saw that the moon had barely moved. Deciding that it was high time he went home, everything except the sword being fixed and that Gobber going to try and keep him in the smithy tomorrow wasn't enough to force him not to sleep, he exited through the front door.

Once out he made his way around the back, thinking to head home from there. As he was walking across the garden he saw the square shield, the sharp, unsharp sword and even the huge armor. But when he walked next to the armor he noticed something. It had been on the other side of the shack, on the blocking the door! Now it was on its side. Looking back at the other things he noticed several of them in different spots. Taking a few steps towards them he started wondering who had been around here? And more importantly, had they stolen something?

Turning around towards the shack to take a look at the breastplate, he was stunned to see something. A pair of yellow-green eyes with slit like pupils looking at him from the darkness. Forgetting to breath, the young Viking slowly started stepping back, but unfortunately crossed up his feet, falling on to the ground. The last thing he saw before that happened were the eyes getting closer and closer.

Trying to get up as fast as he could, he was suddenly pinned down by a sudden weight. Seeing the beasts huge maw open up in front of his face, he was about to scream for help when he suddenly felt his entire face get licked by a giant forked tongue. And it didn't help that his mouth was open when it happened. Nearly losing his entire day worth of eating from the combination of the taste the lick left in his mouth and the smell of fish.

Pushing the dragon off of him without a problem, it not planning on delivering any further damage, Jack rolled to his side coughing, trying to get the spit out of his own mouth. Finally losing the cough after a few strenuous, for him at least, moments he looked up at the pure black night fury and said. "I've Hiccup didn't like you so much I would gut you here and now Toothless." To which he only received what Toothless perceived as a smile. And everyone else as a malicious grin.

Getting off the grass he looked at the dragon. Feeling the urge to strangle it, he just took a step back to regain his composure, something rather hard considering he was covered in dragon spit and said. "Hiccup told me that he is at his house. If you're looking for him then feel free to go there." Turning around he continued onward towards own house.

That is, until he started hearing prancing like steps behind him.


End file.
